“Any decent South African should be embarrassed by what has transpired and what people have raised here.” – Nathi Mthethwa on the SJN.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
ALL of South Africa’s major opponents in the group stage of the men’s T20I World Cup will be in action between the Proteas’ most recent game and their next fixture. Three of the eight teams that will fight it out for the remaining four places will also have played in that time.
That will raise concerns that South Africa could go into the tournament, in the UAE and Oman in October and November, not as thoroughly tested under match conditions as most of the sides they will be up against.
The South Africans were last on the field in Dublin on July 24, when they sealed a 3-0 T20I series win over Ireland. Their next engagement and their last before the T20I World Cup — three matches in each of the white-ball formats against Sri Lanka in Colombo — starts on September 2.
Temba Bavuma’s team have been drawn in Group 1 for the “Super 12” or second round of the T20I World Cup, along with England, Australia and West Indies — who have or will play during South Africa’s 40 days of down time. Those four sides will be joined by two of the four survivors of the first round: the winners of Group A, comprising Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia, and the runners-up in Group B, made up of Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Oman. The Lankans, Irish and Bangladeshis will also have honed their skills while South Africa have been on the sidelines.
South Africans wouldn’t worry as much about their team’s inactivity were it not for the fact that they have seen them win in unemphatic ways in recent months. They beat West Indies comfortably in both Tests in St Lucia in June, and then boxed clever against superior opposition to win the T20I series in Grenada 3-2. But they were less convincing in Ireland in July, losing one of the two completed ODIs at Malahide and having to dig deeper than they would have wanted to in the T20Is.
Optimists will say that’s no bad thing, especially as it followed nine losses in the first 13 matches South Africa played this year. Finding ways to win other than the staples of booming fast bowling, gritty batting and watertight fielding surely denotes progress in an overall sense. But the concomitant batting collapses, ragged death bowling and leaky fielding have alarmed many.
Even so, events on the field have been an unmitigated triumph compared to the searing testimony delivered at the hearings of CSA’s Social Justice and Nation-building (SJN) project, which has exposed a game riven by racism committed and suffered in the 30 years since cricket declared itself unified across colour lines. Closer to the truth is that South Africa, where social and economic inequalities are more stark than in any other country, is a long way from being able to call itself a democracy anywhere outside of the voting booth.
“Any decent South African should be embarrassed by what has transpired and what people have raised here,” Nathi Mthethwa, the sports minister, told the SJN on Friday. “What is happening in cricket is not only a reflection of the happenings in other [sports] federations, but they in turn are a reflection of society itself. Sport is a microcosm of what we see broadly in society.”
The SJN has heard serious allegations implicating figures who occupy prominent positions in the game. Those named have until August 18 to respond formally. Hearings will resume on August 23, and Dumisa Ntsebeza, the SJN ombud, is due to submit his report, which will include recommendations, by the end of September.
South Africa will be back on the field by then. A few weeks after that they will be pitched into the cauldron of a World Cup. Quite what will be forged in this fire remains unclear. But there can be no doubt it will have a profound effect on the game. No side of the boundary will be the same.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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